Five years ago we bought an old house in San Francisco with a fig tree. We tore the walls down but kept the tree. Months turned into years - very cold years - but we are finally putting the house back together. Thanks for visiting.

moving quickly

It’s hard to believe we were sleeping in this house a month ago. The construction is moving faster than I imagined. So far we’ve had lots and lots of demo, footings/foundation poured, grade beams installed, initial sewer lines installed, retaining wall poured, and the start of the framing (more updated images to come).

This coming week our architectural glu-lam is going in. Joe tells me it weights 1,000 pounds. It’s the biggest beam I’ve ever seen. The LVL beams are about to go in as well. Then we should see some initial concrete pours of the main kitchen/living area and more framing.

These photos were taken just before the retaining wall and footings were poured.

The entire back of the house is removed. I’m standing in the future master bathroom area, I think.

The big square of dirt will be our main living/dining/kitchen. I’m excited to see it framed out. I had trouble envisioning how large the space would be from the drawings.

That’s our old kitchen area and guess what, it looked just like this when we lived there. I’m not kidding.

This is looking from the front of our house (I’m facing East) and again aside from the trash this is exactly what it looked like when we lived there. Yikes!

Looking towards the back of the house (I’m facing West). Our second level will now extend all the way to the end of our neighbors house on the left and a deck will extend about 12′ further with the lower level extension.

Gratuitous photo of Joe standing in the what will be office/garage area.

I hope you’re not looking at a dead thing Joe. The crew found a dead raccoon during the demo.

The South side retaining wall/foundation. The contractor used some of the old garage siding from our garage for the form-work. The former home-owner painted with some crazy fun colors.

Inspecting the form-work.

Some of the amazing colors that will be covered up. I don’t want to forget what it used to look like.

Thanks for reading. I’ve got some posts coming up on exterior finishes and a few other upcoming decisions.